Did International Law Just Say We Have To Legalize Cannabis?

Would you be surprised to know that another study has backed the positive effects of cannabis? At this point, I doubt it. But what is surprising, is that it isn’t a study of medicine. It was a study of international law.

The final nail in the prohibition coffin

After the scare tactics of Reefer Madness stopped working, prohibitionists resorted to science to keep us away from the dreaded plant. Then, science betrayed them. Over and over again. After that, they turned to the threat of crime. Statistics from legal states called their bluff again. Even the worries of addiction, gateway drug theory, and underage use have all been wiped away.

The only bullet left in the gun of warmongers against personal liberty has been the United Nations treaty on controlled substances. I mean, we can’t just break a treaty. That would be un-American, right? See history for a laugh at that.

What if the treaty had a loophole? All other government documents seem to have them, especially tax laws for the rich. Well, a study by Radboud University in the Netherlands just found it, and it is big enough to drive a parade float through.

Why we have to legalize cannabis

The study is the result of research by Legal scholars Piet Hein van Kempen and Masha Fedorova of Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

According to the findings, if a regulated legalization of recreational cannabis cultivation and trade were to protect human rights more effectively than a total ban on the drug, then by international law, human rights trump the U.N. Drug Conventions.

As the current Conventions do not allow for a regulated recreational market, to safeguard people from the dangers of harsh laws and inhumane sentences, then the treaty is null and void from the standpoint of the foundations of the United Nations core principles of protecting people.